Teaching Critical Thinking in a College-Level Writing Course: A Critical Reflection

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Critical Thinking; Problem Solving; Thinking Skills; Writing Skills; Skill Development; Correlation; Integrated Curriculum; Persuasive Discourse; Essays; Introductory Courses; Freshman Composition; Foreign Countries

2148-225X

This paper challenges the widely held assumption that teaching writing inevitably equips students with the critical thinking skills required to succeed in college and beyond. The paper reviews the literature on the relationship between writing and the development of critical thinking skills, and critically reflects on the author's experiences in teaching an introductory college-level argumentative writing course. A synthesis of the literature and the author's experiences emphasize that the relationship between writing and critical thinking is not obvious, and that writing instructors must make intentional efforts to clarify this relationship to students, and to teach and assess critical thinking skills from students' essays. Additionally, the paper demonstrates that despite critical thinking skill development being an expected outcome in writing courses, the process of enhancing critical thinking skills through written tasks remains covert and largely undocumented. Following a critical analysis of her teaching practice, the author proposes and documents an integrated approach to fostering critical thinking within a college-level writing course. Ultimately, this paper makes a theoretical and practical contribution to the less explored quest of clarifying the link between critical thinking and writing and illuminating the process of integrating both skills sets in a writing course.

As Provided

2021

EJ1286590